As an alternative to boxes and crates particularly disposable holders for series of bottles have become customary in recent years. Such disposable holders consist of a blank provided with punchings and perforations and groovings respectively, possibly a folded blank made of particularly cardboard or corrugated cardboard and package together e.g. 2, 3, 4 or 6 bottles to be shipped from the producer or the distributor to the consumers.
It is true that such holders generally are adapted to their purpose and advantageous, but in certain cases strength and fatigue problems respectively do still arise, particularly in case it is desirable to combine minimal use of material with a maximal number of bottles, which accounts for a substantial total weight.
Another problem or at least a wish exists primarily among the producers, i.e. a simultaneous packaging together and handling of a maximal number of bottles, which is quick, reliable and economic. Special machine elements and special machine operations have been required so far in order to bring every part of a holder into the appropriate locking position. The machine equipment is often complicated and expensive and the application process slow and not entirely reliable.
Examples of already known holders and machine equipment designed to apply them onto containers are described in WO-9302941, EP-A3-150 944, NO-B127 963 and SE-B-356 479. The subject of the last document is extremely simple and has no special gripping means. The subject of the Norwegian document is limited to a continuous single-row-formation of container cans with a bead. An exact synchronization of the mutual position of the containers and the application elements is necessary for a functioning process. The fit and the tolerances have to be precise. The holder probably is not generally suitable for bottles and absolutely not for bottles having varying shapes. No special gripping means are used. The European patent document relates to an application of three-dimensionally shaped fairly complicated containers, which nevertheless have no locking means. The PCT document relates to a folding of a relatively complicated holder blank according to FIG. 1 into a shape shown in FIG. 2 with gluing, after which containers can be introduced in a way not described in detail. This is of course time consuming and does not allow a use of fast mechanical application equipment, and also, the reliability of the holders can be questioned. Special gripping means are not used in this case either.